Local Cuisine Part II: Zapiekanka

According to our tour guide, Kazimierz in the early 90s was very run down and one of the quarters to avoid unless you wanted to get mugged or were involved in some semi-illegal activity.
After Schindler's List, tourists started to come to see the locations of the movie and the events that inspired it. Today, it is a popular place to get some street food, a drink or two, shop in quirky vintage stores, rummage through flea markets or meet friends at a café.

It is here that I went (after recovering from the tour) to grab a snack. Word on the street is that zapiekanka was invented as an alternative to burgers behind the Iron Curtain and that the best place to try it is Plaza Nowy. Originally, this was a Jewish market, where they'd get their kosher meats from the round building in the middle.

Every single window is an individual vendor and they all sell zapiekanka. There's no way of determining which one is best. The tried and proven tactic: Just choose any one at random. The menus, prices, and quality are mostly identical.

What I didn't expect was that I'd literally get half a full-size baguette, not a small hand-sized one or only a part of it. The snack was instantly upgraded to dinner. I wasn't expecting much from it, as it's 'just' baguette with cheese, mushrooms and chives. But it was surprisingly good and I can definitely see how it can taste like a heavenly gourmet meal if you're heading home after a night out.Read more